Thursday, January 3, 2013

My Journey So Far

Hi all,I’m Steph.As you make have already figured out I am a member of Weight Watchers. I’ve struggled with my weight my entire life. I’ve always been the “chubby” or “fat” girl. I was always the biggest girl in my group of friends and almost always the biggest girl out of all my classmates each year growing up. Some of you may know what that’s like. Since joining Weight Watchers I’ve lost almost 40 lbs. I can honestly say it has drastically changed my life and I may be the biggest advocate of Weight Watchers that I know. Since I started I have motivated over 4 people to join the program and it’s worked for all of us! I started my journey on February 23rd 2011. It has been slow but I have to admit I dragged my feet the entire year of 2012. 2012 was hard on me financially and emotionally.. and in the end also physically. I weighed more on January 1/2013 than I did the same day in 2012. I emotionally ate and didn’t track for the past few weeks/months. No excuses. I was lazy and possibly a bit depressed.I’ve been there before and it was the reason I started weight watchers in the first place. I was the heaviest I had ever been.. nearing almost 250 lbs. I couldn’t believe I had let myself go that much. I was at a point in my life where I didn’t think I’d be happy again.. I hated myself and didn’t think change was possible. I hated what I made of my life and the hole I had left filled with nothing but negatively and internal pain. I look back and know that some of it wasn’t my fault. I was in an abusive relationship for 4.5 years. Constant put downs and let downs followed by me completely filling my face full of fatty, sugar filled foods. After I left him my life changed drastically. I realized that I could be happy.. that I was in charge of my happiness and only I could push myself to change. I did it. The first thing I did was see if I could cut out all pop (soda) out of my life. I did it! It was extremely hard as Canada Dry ginger ale was my biggest addiction.. but I did it. I tried cutting out all carbs for two weeks and successfully did it. Then I realized that I like carbs too much to completely cut it out and that it wasn’t really a good way to try and lose weight. One of my friends was telling me about how she joined weight watchers and how she lost a lot in the first week. I figured “why not?!” and signed up. That was one of the smartest things I’ve ever done. It was truly an easy program that was easy to stick to. I found that I wasn’t eating ENOUGH food.. that I was just making really bad choices and not worrying about portion control at all. From that moment my outlook on food and healthy eating has changed drastically. I am ready to get back into that mindset. I’m not going to start next week, sometime this week or tomorrow. I am going to start RIGHT NOW. THIS INSTANT. This is a fresh start for me and I’m looking forward to a very positive 2013 filled with change and success. Thanks for reading!Steph

4 comments
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Steph I love, love your attitude. It's been amazing to watch the changes in you over the years and follow your ups and downs (we all have them). I look up to you now more than ever because you realize your self-worth and you're encouraging others to embrace theirs.

What you're doing here, what you're all doing, is a wonderful thing and I'm proud of all three of you.

I also want to say I appreciate that you mention being in a bad relationship and the effects it had on you Steph. I talk regularly with friends about relationships and several have told me about the emotional/physical/sexual abuse they endured at the hands of their partners whether husbands, boyfriends or lovers. I've seen the long-term effects this can have, it's heartbreaking to see these girls view themselves as anything less than the amazing, beautiful people they are.

That's why I think blogs like this are so important, because before a person can lose weight they have to decide they're worth it. I won't sit here and say I know what it's like to be overweight but I do know there's a lot of emotion that comes with it. Talking about how you've felt in the past and where you are now will really help people relate and connect with you, I feel. (When I say "you" I mean the three of you).